


Our Gossip Lips Stuttered Every Word

by PadawanRyan



Series: Quarantine 'Verse (aka Close Enough to Reality) [5]
Category: Fall Out Boy
Genre: Coronavirus, Established Relationship, F/M, Family Dynamics, Fluff and Humor, Growing Up, M/M, Parenthood, Quarantine, Still Not Reunited, social distancing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:42:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25518988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PadawanRyan/pseuds/PadawanRyan
Summary: Patrick couldn’t believe Pete wouldn’t have said anything, so perhaps Pete didn’t evenknow. But how could Pete not know? “You never told me Bronx has a girlfriend.”Pete scoffed on the other end of the phone. “He does not.”“Yes, he does,” Patrick responded, eyebrow raised even though Pete couldn’t see it. “It’s all over his Instagram account.”--------------------In which Patrick confronts Pete about his eleven year old having a girlfriend and accidentally rats out Bronx for creating an Instagram account behind his dad's back. Meanwhile, Pete realizes that his kids are growing up.
Relationships: Mentions of Bronx Wentz/Original Female Character(s), Patrick Stump/Pete Wentz
Series: Quarantine 'Verse (aka Close Enough to Reality) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1720804
Comments: 6
Kudos: 19





	Our Gossip Lips Stuttered Every Word

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this was inspired by two things: first, my friend's son has his first crush right now and it's pretty damn adorable. Secondly, I've recently been stalking my niece on the internet (mostly because she's autistic and not a very verbal child, so watching her communicate online is like seeing a whole side of her that we never realized existed). So, together, these real life experiences combined into this idea of Patrick witnessing Bronx's first crush by watching him communicate on the internet. And, of course, Patrick not realizing that Pete didn't know that, followed by Pete's realization that _shit_ , he's growing up.
> 
> I don't want to write too much about the kids because it's different to drag them into the spotlight, especially when Pete and Patrick try not to draw much attention to their kids. I have mentioned them in fics before, and there's the brief scene in [the first quarantine fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23217934) with Patrick's kids, but Bronx is not actually in this fic. However, since they're discussing his crush and his social media, obviously a large part of the fic does focus on Bronx. But, with that in mind, this isn't a fic _about_ Bronx, but rather a fic about Pete and Patrick as co-parents who are navigating the world of their son growing up and experiencing new things.

Patrick couldn’t believe Pete wouldn’t have said anything, so perhaps Pete didn’t even _know_. But how could Pete not know? “You never told me Bronx has a girlfriend.”

Pete scoffed on the other end of the phone. “He does not.”

“Yes, he does,” Patrick responded, eyebrow raised even though Pete couldn’t see it. “It’s all over his Instagram account.”

“He doesn’t have an Instagram account.”

“Umm…”

“Wait.” It sounded like Pete was shifting to sit up straight. “He has a secret Instagram account?”

“Well, I don’t know about secret,” Patrick began, “but he’s following me. And I’m following him, because he’s basically my kid, right? I mean, he’s your kid, I know he’s your kid, but I thought at least that I would be his, I don’t know, _stepfather_ or somet—”

Pete cut him off. “Yes, he’s your kid. But I never authorized him to have an Instagram account.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that. If I knew that, of course I’d have said something.”

Patrick could hear Pete sigh on the other end, conceding, of course, that Patrick was right. It was not like Patrick to connive with Bronx against him except in cases of like, surprises, or sometimes water balloon fights. Damn, suddenly he was missing the water balloon fights that they used to have with the kids in the summer. Well, Los Angeles would still be warm enough when he and the boys arrived in September — they could surely have one then, maybe to celebrate the move. Or, maybe to let the boys fight over who’s sharing a room with who.

Not that the kids were getting much choice in that, anyway. He and Pete had already decided who was going where. But it might be fun to let the boys think they have some control over the situation by influencing it with the fight.

Okay, so Patrick just wanted to get Pete wet. Sue him.

But that was off topic.

“I know you would have,” Pete told him. “I’m not mad at you. Frankly, I’m not mad at him either, because my parents were pretty strict with me and we all know how that went down, so I don’t want to be too strict with him either, you know?”

Patrick did know. “That’s why I figured that you knew about it. If it helps at all,” he added, “it is set to private, so the public can’t see his pictures.”

“That _does_ help a little bit,” the older man conceded.

“He probably got the idea from your private account. You are a good role model sometimes, you know.”

Pete was a good role model more than just sometimes. Maybe the Pete who had become a new father over a decade ago wasn’t always the best role model, but the Pete who had three kids – and a couple step-kids too, for that matter – was in better control of his life, which did make a huge difference. His mental health was under better control, he was more responsible, and he had finally gotten his head out of his ass and let Patrick in. Both the head and the ass. So yeah, Patrick was actually pretty proud of the man Pete had become since Bronx was first born.

“Yeah, yeah,” Pete said, and Patrick could tell he was smiling and waving his hand like it meant nothing when it really meant a lot more. “But you said something about a girlfriend?”

“Girlfriend?” Patrick asked. He’d already forgotten. “Oh, right. He’s got a girlfriend.”

“He’s eleven, he does not.”

“You had a girlfriend when you were eleven,” Patrick pointed out, because yeah, Pete _had_ told him that before.

“That didn’t count. We were just kids.”

Well, and what did he think Bronx was right now? Patrick stated as much. “So is Bronx, but just like it _felt_ real for you when you were seven and eight and eleven and fourteen—”

Pete laughed. “It was _definitely_ real when I was fourteen.”

“And we will discuss your illicit teenage sex another time, like perhaps when we’re discussing when to give Bronx _the talk_ – which should probably be soon because while I trust him, he _is_ starting puberty and probably should be aware of these things – but all I’m saying is that it’s real for them. Whether or not they’re kids,” he tried to explain.

“Shit,” Pete muttered. “We need to give him _the talk_ soon. Fuck.”

And Patrick would be lying if he said he hadn’t been thinking about that too. It’s one thing to get _the talk_ from your parents, but it’s a whole different thing to be the parent giving the talk. Bronx was the oldest so neither of them had any experience with this before, besides Pete trying to give Patrick _a talk_ – not precisely _the talk_ , but something similar – in the back of a dirty old van back in the day, to which Patrick responded by pushing him away and telling him to suck a dick. Patrick wasn’t a virgin and Pete was an asshole. And there was no way in hell he was letting Pete give _that_ talk to his son.

At least Bronx probably wouldn’t tell Pete to go suck a dick. The last thing a kid wanted to think about was their parents having sex, and well, once he got _the talk_ , it was going to be all too clear that Pete and Patrick probably _had_ done exactly that.

God, that was going to be traumatizing for all parties involved.

“But his girlfriend—” Patrick began before Pete cut him off again, asking, “how do you know?”

“Well, she’s commenting cute little hearts and whatnot on his posts,” Patrick explained. “And he’s responding with cute little hearts of his own. Obviously they don’t have pictures together, they probably haven’t seen each other since the schools closed, but it’s pretty clear that there’s _something_ there. There’s flirting—”

“ _Flirting?!_ ”

“—tame, eleven year old flirting with little heart emojis and phrases like ‘miss you cutie’ and ‘aww love you’.”

Frankly, Patrick thought it was adorable. He could remember being eleven and thinking that girls were icky at the time – he didn’t really start to feel attraction to anyone, regardless of gender, until he was about thirteen or so – but Pete had been a ladies’ man since the first time he opened his eyes, as far as Patrick was concerned. People had been besotted with Pete since infancy — and yeah, sure, that was different, but the point was that Pete had always been fucking loveable. And Pete, in return, had always _loved_. Pete loved everyone in his life with such a fierce passion that Patrick had never worried about the kids feeling unloved, or _Patrick_ feeling unloved. Even before Pete and Patrick were actually together, Patrick never doubted that his best friend loved him.

“In fact,” Patrick added, grinning because he was a bit of a jerk sometimes, “you could probably take lessons on flirting from your son.”

“Miss you, cutie,” Pete responded instantaneously. Patrick should have expected that. “Really, though,” the other man went on, “I really do miss you. I can’t believe it’s been so long already since I saw you, and _even longer_ since I even got to _touch_ you.”

“I know. I miss you too. But at least we’ll be there in like, two months, right?”

“I don’t want to wait that long.”

Patrick laughed at the sound of Pete’s faux pout. “Of course you don’t, but time will pass quickly and before you know it, we’ll be old and grey and you’ll be sick of me in your bed.”

“I will _never_ be sick of you in my bed, Patrick Stump,” Pete proclaimed with a firmness to the statement.

“We’ll see.”

“We won’t see until you actually get here, though, will we?”

A lot of their phone calls had taken this turn recently, where Pete complained about not wanting to wait. Ever since they had made the decision to move in together at the end of the summer, Pete had become more impatient to see Patrick, as though having an actual date was harder to wait for than the general concept of potentially seeing Patrick again _someday_. And Patrick could understand that because he was also impatient to see Pete again, but sometimes it felt like he was trying to talk to a child about why they couldn’t go to Disney World.

For that matter, he had had to talk to _Pete_ about why they couldn’t go to Disney World, but he was sure Pete was just being a little shit.

“Soon, Pete,” he reminded him.

“I know, I know. I just…I do miss you. It’s been hard without you.”

Patrick could imagine. Although he knew Pete wasn’t totally isolated – he was still going out in public, donning his mask like a good boy – this whole situation was certainly taking its toll on him. Patrick wasn’t having as hard a time with it as Pete – he liked being able to stay in his basement studio all day – but it was definitely getting to him too.

“I know,” he said softly. “But I promise you, the moment we land in LA, I will give you the tightest hug you’ve ever received in your life. You might even burst.”

He could hear Pete’s smile as the other man responded, “aww, love you.”

That was something Patrick would never get tired of hearing. He really did love Pete _so fiercely_ and while Pete was the romantic one – Pete was the one who went out of his way and made all sorts of gestures – Patrick was sure that he’d never love anyone as much as he loved Pete. Except the kids, of course, but that was a different sort of love. But thinking of the kids reminded him of the whole reason he had even called in the first place (besides to hear Pete’s voice). “Please don’t tell Bronx I ratted him out. I don’t want to be the bad guy before I even get there.”

“No problem,” the other man said. “I’ll just tell him I was stalking you and found the account in your followers.”

“As long as he thinks his dad is the weirdo and not me, we’re good.”

“You’re his dad, too,” Pete reminded him.

Patrick hadn’t expected that such a statement could spread so much warmth throughout his body. They really were a real family, weren’t they? Patrick and Pete and their litter of gorgeous, talented children who were _growing up way too fast_. God, Patrick was actually almost ready to cry. He felt like his mom when he had left for his first van tour with a bunch of young adults who were definitely not responsible enough to take care of a couple of teenagers.

He nodded, even though Pete couldn’t see him. “Then tell him I love him too, okay? And that I’ll see him soon.”

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on social media! I'm **padawanryan** on [Tumblr](https://padawanryan.tumblr.com/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/PadawanRyan), and [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/padawanryan/). ✌️


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